U.N. sounds alarm over fishing

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 18 (UPI) -- An overhaul of the global fishing sector is needed to prevent the depletion of fish stocks, U.N. environmental officials warned in Kenya.

Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, issued a dire forecast for the global fishing sector.

"Fisheries around the world are being plundered or exploited at unsustainable rates," he said. "It is a failure of management of what will prove to be monumental proportions unless addressed."

A U.N. report on world fisheries said an $8 billion annual investment in "green" practices could make fishing more efficient and generate trillions in economic benefits.

This investment, UNEP said, could come from phasing down or phasing out the $27 billion worth of subsidies in place. The funding is needed to "dramatically reduce the excess capacity of the world's fishing fleets while supporting workers in alternative livelihoods," UNEP added.

UNEP estimates that there are roughly 35 million fishers actively working globally, suggesting fisheries support about 8 percent of the global population when considering post-fishing activities.

"Mismanagement, lack of enforcement and subsidies totaling over $27 billion annually have left close to 30 percent of fish stocks classed as 'collapsed' -- in other words yielding less than 10 percent of their former potential," UNEP warned.